When to go, what to eat, short-term stay rules, oysters, and more oysters.
Charleston is one of the oldest Southern cities in the United States. Founded as a proprietary colony in 1670, it became one of the wealthiest cities in the Colonial and Antebellum era. Of course, that wealth was built upon the labor of enslaved persons from West Africa. Charleston’s power and its role in the slave trade—and the fact that it was the stage for the opening shot of the American Civil War—gave it a prominent place in early U.S. history. Though many of Charleston’s ever-growing amounts of visitors are drawn to the city’s historic architecture, they come also for its newer charms: a vibrant, growing scene for progressive artists, hip-hop emcees, actors, authors, and playwrights, not to mention distillers, brewers, and chefs, each tangling with the city’s past as it pushes into the future.
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